Member Article

Revealed: Olympic Park to house Europe’s largest innovation centre

A new 68,000 sq ft space at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is set to become Europe’s largest innovation centre it has been announced.

Located at the 1.2m sq ft digital and creative hub at Here East, the Innovation Centre is to house innovative companies from a range of sectors and will foster a community of businesses aiming to revolutionise fields from sport to fashion and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The planned centre is to be a joint venture between creative agency DV4, Delancey’s evergreen investment fund, accelerator specialists ENTIQ and serial entrepreneur Claire Cockerton, who will helm the new scheme as its Chief Executive Officer.

Once opened, the Innovation Centre will form a key part of the £100m Here East media and cultural hub, which is based in the former Olympic Press and Broadcast Centre, and will provide a whole raft of services London’s innovation econony, including accelerator and incubation programmes, education services for entrepreneurs, prototyping facilities and a technology lab.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan described the announcement as part of his commitment to making London a ‘world-leading tech hub’ and underlined the sector’s importance to the city’s economy.

He said: “London’s digital technology sector supports almost 200,000 jobs and will generate a massive £18bn for the capital’s economy this year. This Innovation Centre will be a big boost to the sector and provide a hub for exciting new innovation.

“The new centre forms an important part of London’s Olympic legacy in the east of London, generating jobs, encouraging investment and nurturing a growing local community of inventors and entrepreneurs.”

ENTIQ already have a number of innovation centres under their belt, having worked with the clients such as EY, City of London Corporation and Canary Wharf Group to set up innovation programmes such as Innovate Finance and the Cognicity smart cities accelerator programme.

The centre’s CEO, Claire Cockerton, who is also one of ENTIQ’s founders, also helped establish the Level39 programme at One Canada Square in Canary Wharf which is also Europe’s largest FinTech accelerator.

Commenting on the new hub, Claire outlined her grand vision for the project, which she believes will result in life changing innovations for the capital and beyond.

She said: “We have a bold vision and a strong team to deliver London’s next technology and innovation cluster. Working together at Here East, our members and partners will unite to shape new industry verticals that will make life better: businesses that improve engagement in sport, tools for preventative health care, the design of intelligent & functional fabrics, applications that improve connectivity, sustainability and mobility in urban environments and much more.

“Our business values are firmly rooted in the local and Olympic history: creativity and making, multi-disciplinary working, inclusivity and internationalism, and we will remain a launch pad for British based scale-up businesses and a soft landing pad for companies coming to the UK for the first time.”

The centre is set to run various programmes and activities throughout the year ahead of a soft launch this October.

A full launch is set to follow in January 2017, supporting 500 on-site members and organisations once at full occupancy with options for spin-out firms looking to scale up occupying space across the entire Here East estate.

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →